The One...The Only...JAWS (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey D]

In the doc Spielberg acknowledged the first time we see the shark got the biggest jump scare for preview audiences. He got greedy and thought he could get an even bigger jump scare and came up with the Ben Gardner head jump scare which succeeded. However the subsequent shark scene ( chum some of this shit) didn’t get the same reaction because of the new jump scare per Spielberg.

Yes I remember Steven talking about those scenes, and the viewer reaction he wanted from those scenes.

 

[Robert Crawford]

IMHO, there is just too much picking apart of the Ben Gardner boat scene. Spielberg said in the docs he wanted another scare, and he got it. The scene works for me every time.

Come on dude that's what we do around here. As to the sequence, I said it could've been better, I never said it wasn't effective.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Come on dude that's what we do around here. As to the sequence, I said it could've been better, I never said it wasn't effective.

Sometimes the picking can remove the fun from the movie.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Sometimes the picking can remove the fun from the movie.

That's only if you allow it. Much of the picking around here, I just kind of shrug my shoulders.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

There are SO many copies of it out there, I'm sure you could find one at a used bookstore for less than fifty cents.

That's too much money!

 

[Tino]

 

[EliAmador]

It's been many years since I read the book, but as I recall it was Brody and his deputy, Hendricks, who find Ben Gardner's boat. He'd been hired by the town to catch the shark, and then he went to sea and never came back. Brody and Hendricks go in the day time to look for him. They find his boat empty but largely intact. There are some scrapes and a missing rear cleat, plus some large tooth marks below the waterline and some blood on the paint. Hendricks leans over the side, held up by Brody so he doesn't go completely overboard, and digs out a tooth with his pocket knife. They return to shore with the tooth. Right about the same time, Hooper shows up for the first time and examines the tooth, which he declares to be from a great white. They never find a body, but they conclude that Ben was probably eaten.

Not nearly as exciting as what happens in the movie.

Also, the scene in the movie was originally going to be set during the day, with Hooper, Brody, and Meadows the newspaper reporter finding the boat. This scene was actually filmed, but never completed. It was the first scene shot on the open ocean, and things didn't go well. Lots of heavy swell, which soaked the sound man and his expensive Nagra recorder. When they went to film the shot where the two boats pull alongside each other, Carl Gottleib, who played Meadows and also wrote the screenplay, leaned over to grab the other boat and went straight over the side and into Nantucket Sound. They managed to pull him out without crushing him between the boats, but the day's shooting was lost and they decided to reshoot the whole thing on a lake in Universal at night. (You can see some of the original version of the scene being shot in the Martha's Vineyard doc that's on the extra features of the Blu Ray.)

That brings up another slightly annoying continuity error with that scene. In the earlier scene at the dock, we see Hooper arrive on the island in a small speed boat with his bag of gear. Ben Gardner helps him out of his boat onto the dock. But when Hooper and Brody go to look for the shark later that night, Hooper has a completely different and much larger boat, replete with a cabin, video and sonar gear. Then a few days later during the fourth of July scene, Hooper is back in his small speedboat again. It's pretty clear that sometime after the main location shoot in Martha's Vineyard, Spielberg decided he wanted Hooper to have a bigger, nicer boat than the one they used earlier. I'm not sure why, since the scene would have been just as creepy in a smaller boat, but there you go. Maybe he wanted to make the point that Hooper was rich and his shark study was more of a fun hobby than a real job.

 

[Malcolm R]

Jaws in Maine:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...an-rare-attack-maine-authorities-say-n1235061

First recorded shark attack in Maine since 1837. No mention of the type of shark, but it sounds like a shark of some size and quite possibly could have been a great white (which are relatively common off the northeast coast in summer).

 

[EliAmador]

"Authorities were able to use a fragment of a tooth to identify the shark as a great white. Great white sharks are the world's largest predatory fish and are dwindling in numbers due to hunting, according to the World Wildlife Fund. "

Tragic news, but not entirely surprising. Great white shark populations in the area have been growing for years due to protection of the local seals and a ban on hunting great whites.

There have been several attacks and multiple close calls with great whites in the Cape Code area as well, not far from where Jaws was filmed in Martha's Vineyard.

 

[EliAmador]

And now there's a project underway to recreate the Orca from the movie, and use it to help shark research. Sounds like a great idea. I'd love to take a journey on the Orca, and maybe even see a real great white from its deck. That would be a once in a lifetime experience.

'Return Of The Orca' Hopes To Recreate The Boat From 'Jaws' To Support Shark Conservation - SlashFilm

Return of the Orca plans to rebuild the boat for Jaws and use it for shark conservation instead of shark hunting.

www.slashfilm.com

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Anyone know what the first "Jaws" knockoff to hit the screens was?

I'm about to watch 1976's "Mako: Jaws of Death", and I wondered if it was the first "'Jaw' wannabe" to reach theaters...

 

[TravisR]

Anyone know what the first "Jaws" knockoff to hit the screens was?

I'm about to watch 1976's "Mako: Jaws of Death", and I wondered if it was the first "'Jaw' wannabe" to reach theaters...

If you're going outside of sharks, I think it's Grizzly which came out early in the summer of 1976.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Anyone know what the first "Jaws" knockoff to hit the screens was?

I'm about to watch 1976's "Mako: Jaws of Death", and I wondered if it was the first "'Jaw' wannabe" to reach theaters...

Cornel Wilde made “Sharks’ Treasure” in 1975. I do not know why this has stuck in my head, but I seem to remember him in a publicity interview trying to one-up Jaws by saying “but our sharks are real.”

 

[Johnny Angell]

Or maybe it was Saturday Night Live with “The Land Shark”?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

If you're going outside of sharks, I think it's Grizzly which came out early in the summer of 1976.

Focusing on fish!

"Grizzly" did beat "Mako" by a couple months!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Cornel Wilde made “Sharks’ Treasure” in 1975. I do not know why this has stuck in my head, but I seem to remember him in a publicity interview trying to one-up Jaws by saying “but our sharks are real.”

According to IMDB, "Sharks' Treasure" made it to screens before "Jaws".

But then the trivia area says that Wilde couldn't raise financing until "Jaws" became a hit!

 

[dpippel]

Or maybe it was Saturday Night Live with “The Land Shark”?

Pizza, ma'am.

 

[Sam Favate]

Is this an official sequel?

'Santa Jaws' Is A Christmas Horror Movie About A Killer Shark In A Santa Hat. Yes, Really

It sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

apsari.com

 

[Malcolm R]

It's a very odd film, but as far as I know the only Christmas-themed shark attack film.

Though I guess Jaws the Revenge took place around the holidays. The Amity carolers were singing while Sean Brody was attacked.

 

[Malcolm R]

Original model of Bruce from Jaws being added to Academy Museum of Motion Pictures:

https://ew.com/movies/jaws-shark-model-the-academy-museum/